Kd

***** K.D. Lang and the Reclines, Angel with a Lariat (Sire): Who would have guessed that a Canadian singer and a Welsh record producer would come up with the best and most original country album of the year?Lang, the Canadian, has one of those sheer-power voices -- her style completely defying the Texas/Tennessee sounds. Anne Murray, she ain't. The intensity and volume of her emotions and delivery almost make it a necessity to insure her vocal chords.Lang has a love for country music's roots.

MOUNT DORA -- Kathleen Dunn "K.D." Gaylord had a way of connecting with people and making them feel special, which led her to become friends with people of all ages and from all places. "No matter who she saw or met, she treated them as special," said her husband, Frank Gaylord. K.D. Gaylord died from cancer Nov. 12 at home surrounded by her family. She was 56. Gaylord was born in Kansas City, Mo. She met her husband while attending Stetson University and living in Eustis. The couple's first date was to the Atlanta Rock Festival in Perry, Ga. Frank Gaylord said they connected and fell in love.

Florida law-enforcement authorities are searching for a Central Florida businessman who allegedly sold fraudulent investments.Loren ''Ray'' Reynolds, 65, of Ormond Beach was considered a fugitive late Monday after he failed to turn himself in as agreed.An arrest warrant was issued last week after Reynolds allegedly violated probation on a previous burglary conviction. That violation stems from accusations that he sold unregistered securities and that he left Volusia County without permission.

Dear Carolyn: Do you think there's too much emphasis on "being yourself" these days? I don't think people should hide who they are, but there's some conformity inherently implied in being part of a society. In other words, I think it's unrealistic to expect to be hired at a conservative law firm when you have a tattoo of a spider covering your face, or to expect your old New England family to invite all three of your current husbands to Thanksgiving dinner without batting an eye. Believe me, I have my own unusual quirks, but since I don't feel like getting smacked around, I sort of keep them on the down-low.

Canada's country singing star, k.d. lang, is making her first feature film, written and directed by Percy Adlon. It's a low budget affair costing only $3,000,000 and titled Salmonberries. The singer is in a remote Alaskan village working on the story of a woman who is half-Eskimo and searching for her roots in a Bering Sea setting.So - k.d. fans are asking - will she sing in this one? Well, she could burst out into song as Jeannette MacDonald did for MGM in Rosemarie. But k.d. won't sing this time.

A number of radio stations in America's cattle country have dropped Grammy-winning singer k.d. lang's records after her participation in a ''Meat Stinks'' campaign for the Washington-based advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.Lang, from Alberta, Canada, recently taped a promotional television spot for the animal-rights group, hugging a cow named Lulu and saying, ''We all love animals, but why do we call some of them pets and some of them dinner? If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch.

MOUNT DORA -- Kathleen Dunn "K.D." Gaylord had a way of connecting with people and making them feel special, which led her to become friends with people of all ages and from all places. "No matter who she saw or met, she treated them as special," said her husband, Frank Gaylord. K.D. Gaylord died from cancer Nov. 12 at home surrounded by her family. She was 56. Gaylord was born in Kansas City, Mo. She met her husband while attending Stetson University and living in Eustis. The couple's first date was to the Atlanta Rock Festival in Perry, Ga. Frank Gaylord said they connected and fell in love.

Grammy winner k.d. lang, the Canadian who seems to dress and groom herself a lot like Julian Lennon does, said in a recent VH-1 special that she likes ''to stretch people's imagination of what male and female is; swimming in the social mainstream can be very boring.''In one of the interview snippets on the special, k.d. lang: All You Get Is Me, lang said she has ''found it challenging to retain a certain amount'' of country music's tradition and at the same time ''stretch it to new places.

Canadian country singer k.d. lang will star in her first feature film when production of Salmonberries starts next month in a remote Alaskan village.The movie's plot focuses on a half-Eskimo woman, played by lang, who returns to her roots in the Bering Sea village of Kotzebue.

Something strange has happened to k.d. lang. The Canadian chanteuse who built a career around singing heart-wrenching and emotionally draining love songs is no longer wearing her heart on her well-tailored sleeve. The rain has stopped, the clouds have lifted, and lang is suddenly sounding happy. On Invincible Summer, her first album of new material in nearly five years, lang gives a glimpse inside this sparkly new persona with sun-drenched melodies that would make the Beach Boys blush.

Lang, who grew up idolizing Patsy Cline, hit the music scene in 1987 and was considered country. The Canadian singer even won a Grammy for best country vocal performance two years later. However, in 1992 after declaring she was a lesbian, lang abandoned her country roots with the release of Ingenue. The CD spawned the top 40 hit "Constant Craving" and earned her the pop vocal performance Grammy. Her current release is Invincible Summer. Shelby Lynne also will be on the 7:30 p.m. bill.

Sometimes it pays to be a senior citizen. Boston-based Saga Holidays, which specializes in vacations for 50-and-older travelers, is offering two weeks for the price of one aboard the sybaritic, four-masted Star Clipper. Here's the deal. You pay for the first week's cruise on the 170-passenger vessel through the Grenadine Islands and get the second week through the Windward Islands for free. You pay $155 for port taxes for the additional week. Prices start at $2,095 per person, double occupancy.

* * * * 1/2 .d. lang, Invincible Summer (Warner): I was pretty much hoping k.d. lang would go back to making country albums - until I heard Invincible Summer. On her third try, Lang has found a way to make pop music that has a frothy charm but is never precious or insubstantial. And while Invincible Summer is at least as lavishly produced as her last two albums, Ingenue and All You Can Eat, it seems more relaxed and spontaneous. Perhaps lang just needed to find collaborators in tune with her current musical passions.

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Dozens of Jamaican prisoners have been beaten by warders, 39 of them so badly they needed hospital treatment, in an incident causing local and international outrage. Justice Minister K.D. Knight said doctors had been to St. Catherine's District Prison to see some of the inmates while 39 ``with more serious injuries'' from the incident last weekend had been sent to the hospital.